What’s Minecraft?

A computer game. You start in an undeveloped world.

What’s Minecraft?
Everything is modifiable. You can build a house…
Many Block Types
Things Built
Starships, for example
Things Built
Working computers, calculators, instruments…
Things Built
and many, many buildings
Subtractive vs. Additive Manufacturing
Subtractive:
• Carving wood or stone
• Drilling holes in a piece of metal

Additive:
• Making a sculpture by
adding clay
• Building using Legos
What’s Minecraft?
Is it additive or subtractive?
Minecraft is…
Mostly additive: you add
blocks to make stuff, such as
giant insects

Sometimes it’s subtractive,

like when you carve away a
hill or make a basement.
3D Printing
Is also called “Additive Manufacturing”.

It’s like building in very tiny blocks put in a grid.

You tell the machine which blocks you want
filled in. Think of very tiny Lego blocks.

These little blocks are sometimes called “voxels”

– sort of like “volume pixel”.
How to Make a Model
Describes what the surface of the model is.

It’s all just

triangles!
Watertight Surfaces
You need to make sure your triangles make a
solid object.

This one
isn’t solid.
Conversion
The 3D printer’s software converts from a
surface to a bunch of voxels.
Printing a Model
This surface is then chopped into
horizontal slices, like a deli meat cutter.

Each slice is then

filled in by the
3D printer, layer
by layer.
Materials
Plastic, metals, ceramic, sandstone,
chocolate, rubber, even liver. More new
ones all the time!

Would
toothpaste
work?
First 3D printing of Minecraft
Minecraft and 3D printing look like a great fit.

Minecraft.print() by two students at MIT:

Mineways
• Free program I wrote for fun.
• Select a “box” in your world
to create a model.
• Takes Minecraft blocks
(voxels) and figures out the
triangles.
• Color 3D printers can print in
full color.
Demo
Steps
Build in gravel or sand (not sandstone) in Minecraft.

Export using Mineways (we’ll help!) - uncheck

“Hollow parts” near bottom of options.

Preview with MeshLab

3D print or upload to Shapeways

Let’s Do It!
Wall Thickness
Unlike Minecraft, if you make things in the real
world, they might not work.
Floating Object Problem
Some obvious problems, some not so obvious
Floating Can Be Fine
Some 3D printers need no support structures:

Some printers do:

Don’t Print What You Can’t See
Hollowing can cut costs by 3x or more.
• My trick is to fill in all interior “bubbles”
found, then hollow out the single solid mass.
Big is Fun
But, larger
costs
more.
Eiffel Quiz
How many 6 inch Eiffels together weigh the
same as a single 12 inch Eiffel?
Smaller is Cuter is Cheaper is Faster
Also, complexity is free!
Gravel
Our 3D printer today can print only gravel (and
sand) structures easily.
Some Examples

Sentinel Castle, by Mauricio Vives World in a Bowl, by Nefashu

Still More Examples

Olympic starship, by Momentaneously Chainlandia, by combineelite

And More
And You Can Make Pictures

Image made with Arnold, by Estopero. Appears on the cover of “3D Artist” magazine.
A Practical Use

Northwestern University Campus, by Ben Rothman

A Practical Use

Ford Engineering Design Center, by Ben Rothman

A Practical Use

Ford Engineering Design Center, by Ben Rothman

A Practical Use

Ford Engineering Design Center, by Ben Rothman

Or, the Whole Campus…

Northwestern University, by Ben Rothman

No Printer?
I don’t have one, either. I use two print
service firms:
• Shapeways: cheapest, and slowest
• Sculpteo: more expensive, faster
Pro Tips for Mineways
• The “[“ and “]” keys adjust the selected
bottom level up and down.
• Middle-mouse can also select height.
• Control-X: eXport again with same options.
• Import Settings lets you load a previous
exported file for its settings.
• Color Schemes let you remove various
types of blocks.
Go Have Fun!
Notes
These slides download from http://bit.ly/mineparts
Mineways is at http://mineways.com
Minecraft is at http://minecraft.net
Shapeways is at http://shapeways.com
Sculpteo is at http://sculpteo.com

This presentation uses images under Fair Use for

educational purposes. The images should not
otherwise be reused or distributed without
permission from the owners.
Leftovers…
Additive Manufacturing
Here’s one type of printer, it lays down layers:
Then Subtractive
Then you dig your model out:
More Subtraction
Then vacuum it:
A Bit More
Then clean with pressurized air:
The Last Step
Then douse with superglue.